Zacarias Moussaoui, one of the numerous "20th hijackers," was
arrested ten years ago next Tuesday, outside the Residence Inn in Eagan, Minnesota.
The arrest was one of the first events in a case that gave the FBI a chance
to blow open the 9/11 plot, but resulted in abject humiliation for the bureau
when its headquarters' string of errors was exposed in the press.

The Moussaoui case is a poster boy for the state of our knowledge about the
attacks: we have some of the details, but know some are missing. Also, two key
questions remain unanswered. This despite the wealth of information that came
out at the trial and the fact that Moussaoui, although largely ignored by the
9/11 Commission's final report--partly due to the forthcoming trial--was
a major topic of the Justice Department inspector general's report into
the FBI's pre-attack failings.

These are the bare bones of the case: Moussaoui had been a known extremist
for years prior to his arrest. Before the bureau first heard his name on August
15, he had been under surveillance by French and British intelligence and the
CIA, although the agency would claim it only knew him under an alias. He was
sent to the US for flight training by alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh
Mohammed, possibly to participate in 9/11, possibly to participate in a follow-up
operation. However, he was a poor student and dropped out of basic flight school
before obtaining a licence and went to learn about flying a Boeing 747, which
aroused suspicion.

When the FBI was brought in, the Minneapolis agents realized he was dangerous
and arrested him on an immigration violation--despite being told not to
do so by headquarters. This was the first of many times the Minneapolis field
office and FBI headquarters clashed over the case. Essentially, even though
they did not know he was linked to al-Qaeda, the local agents understood the
risk Moussaoui posed--one even speculated he would fly a large airliner
into the World Trade Center--and they wanted a warrant to search his belongings
to get information that would lead to his accomplices. On the other hand, headquarters
seemed to think they were alarmist and there was nothing to the case. They kept
throwing up roadblocks.

Disclaimer
The views expressed in this article are the sole
responsibility of the author, who is solely responsible for its content,
and do not necessarily reflect those of 911Truth.org. 911Truth.org will
not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements
contained in this article.